Gay marriage backers
should be identified

During this past election season, a number of brave individuals held signs that read "Matsunaga supports gay marriages" or "Jim Shon supports gay marriage."

It is my hope that this is an idea whose time has come. Votes cast in committee or on the House or Senate floor can and should be shouted from the housetops and curbsides.

The people of Hawaii, by a great majority, recognize that the homosexual lifestyle is not simply an alternative. It is an unnatural, promiscuous, disease-ridden aberration that is destructive to the individual and to societies where it becomes pervasive.

Our elected representatives must represent the citizens of Hawaii on this crucial issue.

Citizens, politicians and potential sign-wavers, the actions taken on this issue in the next two years will have a profound impact on the future of our state, nation, children and grandchildren. See you at the curbside.

Rodney E. Franklin

If gays are first target,
then who will be next?

It is obvious that the opening of the state Legislature's 1997 session is cloaked in a frightening atmosphere of fear concerning the same-gender marriage issue.

Led by homophobic legislators such as Terrance Tom, Whitney Anderson, Gene Ward, Joe Souki and Calvin Say, anti-gay groups have spun this civil-rights issue around to a point where normally fair-minded legislators are frightened and are ready to vote irrationally.

These legislators are scheming to scare the rest of the Legislature into altering our state Constitution, the document which protects us all, so that civil rights are taken away from gays and lesbians.

It is this idea that is terrifying, not the fictional "gay agenda." How can any lawmaker smart enough to get elected ever consider altering the Constitution in such a manner?

My real question is who's next on their hit list. Will they be launching a campaign advocating legalized second-class citizenship for the homeless next, or will it be legalized second-class citizenship for Hawaiians?

Judd's latest letter states: "True Christians view homosexuals as tragic people subject as they are to early death and disease and we are thankful for the thousands who have renounced the lifestyle."

True Christians do NOT view homosexuals as tragic people; rather they follow the Bible, which states: Peter 4:15: "Let none of you suffer...as a busybody in other men's matters." They follow Romans 13:9: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."

And First John 4:20: "If a man say I love God and hateth his brother, he is a liar, for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?"

Letters like Gabbard's, Deal's and Judd's do not come from a Christian perspective. Christ wouldn't even recognize anything they do or say as "Christian like" because they use his name to further bigotry and spread scare-tactic homophobia.

As for the "thousands who have renounced the lifestyle," I am a homosexual and a Christian, with thousands of homosexual and Christian friends. I know only one man who renounced his homosexuality, but several who renounced their Christianity.

Common sense tells us this nation should be promoting equality. No civilization can long sustain widespread intolerance, bigotry, inequality, hate-mongering and negative discrimination disguised as Christianity. We've been down that road with the KKK.

In Hebrew 13:4 the Bible states: "Marriage is honorable in all!" It doesn't say heterosexuals only! Why aren't we following the Bible in that case?

What do these self-appointed moralists have to say about that? If they want to live in a country whose laws and principles are based on religious doctrine, there's always Iran.

Owen-Pahl Green

Attorneys are representing
the rights of consumers

For several weeks I have worked hard at trying to maintain my composure when reading your editorials concerning the 1997 legislative agenda. But the Jan. 14 editorial, "Hawaii Legislature faces a full agenda," was too much.

There is absolutely no empirical data to support your position that the elimination of the current no-fault system "would do nothing to reduce auto insurance premiums" and "would benefit lawyers, not consumers." According to your own reportage, insurance companies in Hawaii are making an 18 percent profit - the second-highest rate in the nation.

Whom do you think lawyers work for if not for the consumer? Remember the Ford Pinto and the Dalkon Shield? Who do you think has challenged the tobacco companies for their frauds on the American public?

Ask the 36-year-old father of three with his own business, who is now a quadriplegic after being hit by a negligent driver, if his suit is frivolous.

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